“Is it fair to ask the people who make more to pay a little bit more in this time of crisis?” he wondered last week, arguing for a “millionaire’s tax” to help balance Albany’s books.

But “a little bit more” from New York’s remaining millionaires won’t come close to closing the state’s $13 billion deficit.

That’s why the speaker and his public-employee union bosses are laying the groundwork for a potentially massive expansion of the state’s income tax – one aimed squarely at the middle class.

And they just may get it.

The numbers don’t lie: State budgeteers say that the number of millionaires statewide has dropped 18 percent since 2007, while their combined gross income has fallen by some $60 billion.

Thus, while the millionaire’s tax Silver pushed through the Assembly last year might have been expected to raise $2.6 billion a year, he’s now speaking of revenues that may not hit $1.5 billion.

That’s still almost $12 billion short.

So: How deeply would an income tax need to reach to get the job done?

Well, a temporary income-tax boost back in 2003 (when the state’s finances were far less dire) hit New Yorkers making as little as $100,000 a year.

And Silver’s union friends are already hard at work dragging the tax debate in precisely that direction.

In the lead here is the Working Families Party, an ostensibly proletariat outfit founded by labor unions and the infamous “community organizers” of ACORN (and bathed in union cash) that has gained considerable access to Albany’s power centers in recent years.

The WFP proposes what it coyly calls “fair-share tax reform,” which would slap a permanent income-tax hike on households earning as little as $250,000 a year.

The party estimates that the new taxes would take in some $6 billion a year – still not nearly enough to close the gap.

So look for even steeper tax hikes.

The purpose is clear: A $13 billion state deficit presents a problem for Silver’s public-employee masters – who mean to remain immune to the recession.

And, so far, they are: While 600,000 Americans lost their jobs last month, the number of workers in government, health care and education actually grew.

Meanwhile, New York’s average state employee (there are 200,000 of them) makes fully $86,000 a year, counting pension and health benefits – a figure set to rise to $92,000 next year.

Is any other middle-class New Yorker expecting that kind of raise anytime soon?

In the city, meanwhile, nearly 10 percent of public-school teachers make more than $100,000 in salary alone.

Forget layoffs or wage freezes, though – the unions won’t even get behind modest tweaks to their benefit structures.

But whence the cash?

Enter the WFP.

The party doesn’t care that any income-tax hike would kill private-sector jobs and exacerbate New York’s recession.

It cares about, mostly, public-sector unions.

And it has clout.

The WFP was key in helping the Democrats recapture the Senate in November.

That makes for serious leverage.

And, so far, there’s been no push-back.

Gov. Paterson has said he’s opposed to any income-tax hike. But not lately.

And he’s made no real effort to defend the already meager spending cuts he’s proposing instead – and is privately telling business leaders and others that Silver is holding the whip hand.

Which is fine for Silver – though real trouble for New York.

But the real question is clear: Are hard-working New Yorkers to suffer job-killing tax hikes to protect the pay and perks of a privileged class?